VBScripts, what is it?

Microsoft's Visual Basic Script (VBScript) offers the functions of a programming language and the simplicity of a technology streamlined for the Web. With VBScript, you can bring your Web pages to life with real-time interaction; there's no more waiting for a server to respond to button clicks and mouse movements. A click of a button gets an instant reaction, and the movement of the mouse over an object brings the object to life.

When you enhance your Web pages with VBScript, you insert scripts directly into your pages. Because VBScript is a subset of Microsoft's Visual Basic, your scripts resemble programs written in Visual Basic. If you aren't a programmer, don't worry. The wonderful thing about VBScript is that it's a very simple programming language to learn and to use. Many Web publishers who aren't programmers use VBScript to enhance their Web pages.

Like most basic programming languages, VBScript is an interpreted language, which is both good news and bad news. The good news is that you don't need to compile your scripts as you would with a program written in C or C++. Your scripts are directly interpreted, line-by-line, when they're executed in the user's browser. The bad news is that before anyone can run your scripts, he or she needs a VBScript interpreter, which is part of the standard Internet Explorer browser package. It's installed automatically when you install Internet Explorer or some other browser.